XEmacs 21.5.20 "cilantro" is released.

[Jérôme Marant]

Quoting "Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen at xemacs.org>:

>     JM> So far, my relation with Emacs upstream is:
>     JM> - forwarding bug reports from users
>     JM> - forwarding patches from users
>     JM> - sending my patches fixing bug reports from users
>     JM> - trying to get patches from upstream CVS in order to fix the
>     JM>   stable tree
>
>     JM> How do you disagree?
>
> Well, XEmacs regularly releases from the stable tree, so you can
> subtract activity 4.  XEmacs distributes some packages distributed

Fortunately, yes.

> separately in Debian, and presumably could distribute all of them.
> Probably that needs a bit of coordination that you don't have to worry
> about with GNU Emacs.  I once proposed to Jim that they should just
> have a generic wrapper that downloads packages from xemacs.org and
> installs them (a la RealPlayer), but apparently Debian strongly
> prefers building from source themselves if it's available.

People love having sumo packages as Debian packages. Since we do
distribute XEmacs binaries, it would be strange not to distribute
packages as well (especially for those who still install from CDs).
I think such a package is quite easy to maintain.

...
>     JM> If someone can come up with convincing arguments, things may
>     JM> be reconsidered.
>
> Given that you're not hearing bug reports, and I'm not hearing bug
> reports (that the user is unwilling to address with "dpkg --erase" and
> install in /usr/local from XEmacs sources), I don't see a big problem.
>
> If Debian wants to get XEmacs developers involved, though, they're
> going to have to ask us for help, and we're probably going to ask for
> changes to the Emacs policy.  But I won't know what until we get to
> that stage.

The point is that people who complain need to get involved. At least,
we need to begin this way.
How is the Emacs policy problematic regarding XEmacs? I think the
question is still unanswered.

> I appreciate you following up, but after thinking about it I don't
> really see a problem that's big enough to warrant substantial
> investment on either side.

Fair enough.

--
Jérôme Marant